In seventeenth-century Versailles, the kitchen garden was as much an ornamental grace within the palace grounds as an essential purveyor of fruits and vegetables for the endless banquets offered to the Court.
Thus, each variety of fruit and vegetable finds its dwelling place within "squares," artfully arranged and planted to summon a harmonious whole. And so we unveil the pear square,
which Louis XIV so passionately adored, the lettuces (that truly have tales to tell), the tomatoes, the apples, garden gnomes, earthworms… Today, in the twenty-first century, Louis XIV is no more, yet the garden endures.
This book devoted to the kitchen garden of the Palace of Versailles stages the artisans (gardeners, cooks) as much as the vegetables themselves. Through a whimsically humorous lens, the author paints a lighthearted, caricatured portrait of Louis XIV; a guillotine illustrates the lettuce square, and a satirical whisper drifts through several chapters. The illustration is exquisite, woven with antique engravings, drawings of ancient tools, and more… Lastly, closing the book, a presentation on the building of Versailles, courtly life—adorned with engravings and paintings—and the garden's choreography yesterday and today offers a richly woven tapestry of documentation.